OBSERVATIONS FOR YOUNG BOTANISTS 185 
Catholic Missionaries as Naturalists. — A curious and 
interesting circular is said to have been just issued to all 
Catholic missionaries by the Sacred Congregation of the Propa- 
gation of the Faith. It urges them to use such opportunities as 
the locality of their mission work affords for the collection of 
natural history specimens, to be given to scientific societies and 
institutions. The intention, it is asserted, is not only to interest 
and encourage such missionaries as are keen naturalists, but 
also to remove the reproach so commonly held that the Church 
does not look with favour upon science, and especially biological 
science. 
OBSERVATIONS FOR YOUNG BOTANISTS. • 
. — Origin and Dispersal of Fruits and Seeds. 
RIGIN OF FRUITS. — The effects of pollination and 
of fertilisation are the fruit and seed ; for besides the 
formation of the embryo — the immediate result of 
fertilisation by the nucleus of the pollen within the 
ovule — its action affects the ovary as well, and very often other 
accessory parts, as we shall see. 
Taking a pea-pod as representing the simplest form, this 
consists of the ovary alone, the peas being the seeds. In a 
strawberry, the numerous carpels become small seed-like bodies 
called “ achenes,” each being a carpel containing a single seed, 
to which it is tightly fitted. The effect of the pollen has been to 
stimulate the end of the floral receptacle to grow into a large 
succulent mass which we eat. It requires the agency of all the 
carpels to be developed in full ; for if it happens that a few were 
not fertilised, there will be a little depression, within which are 
barren carpels crowded together. That spot remains more or 
less green. 
A further condition is seen in the hip of roses, and in 
apples and pears. In these the receptacle has grown up into a 
cup carrying the calyx, corolla and stamens on the top of it ; but 
leaving the carpels below within it. It is fyee from them in the 
hip, but united to them in the apple and pear. In these last, the 
outer epidermis of each of the five carpels is not formed, nor is 
the inner epidermis of the cup, so that the middle, soft tissues 
of both are blended together. This tissue becomes greatly 
increased in quantity and supplies the part we eat ; the inner 
epidermis of the carpels alone constitutes the “core,” leathery 
in the apple but stony in the hawthorn and pear. 
In the plum and peach, the fruit is really comparable with a 
pea-pod ; both are metamorphosed leaves ; but as a leaf usually 
contains no active tissue (called “ cambium ” in a stem), it 
cannot grow when once fully formed. This active layer is 
